Last TV Thursday I told you about one of two shows competing for my Monday at eight attention. Now I shall tell you about the other.Terminator (or T:TSCC, as I sometimes call it) came on at the exact right time: pretty much every other show that I watched and loved had disappeared thanks to the writers' strike (remember that?), and, hey, we all loved T2, didn't we? Plus, Lena Headey was in 300, Thomas Dekker played Zach on the only good season of Heroes, and Summer Glau rules. Should be alright.
And it is. It's exactly okay enough that you can watch comfortably without anyone (either the audience or the writers) taking anything too seriously. But there's always been something a little off about it, and it's not just the way that Cameron's (Glau) ability to act human varies wildly from episode to episode to suit the plot's needs.
At first, I thought it was Dekker. I didn't like his emo bangs or the whiny "Mommy, save me from the apocalypse!" attitude that went along with them. I can't imagine it's pleasant to have the weight of the world on your shoulders, but man up already. I never got why it was considered a good idea to put John in school, much less Cameron there "for his protection," and I honestly wondered how the writers were going to turn the little git into the warrior he was meant to be. Finally this season, John killed a guy (which they waited to confirm for several episodes as though it wasn't obvious), cropped his hair, and decided he was done with school. It looked like they were getting on the right track, but instead the development turned into John Connor - Least Likely to be a Hero.
In the midst of all this, though, I realized that my problem isn't John or Dekker as John at all. My problem is right there in the title: Sarah. It's not Headey as Sarah either (although her occasional wounded-bird body language can be distracting). It's the way they write Sarah and, specifically, the fact that she can't kill a man. Back in season one, Derek (Brian Austin Green) rolled in and totally shot some guys. Sarah was all, "Oh, no, you couldn't possibly kill that sweet nerd who was totally building Skynet, could you?" And Derek said no, but he so did.
And that's the trouble with Sarah. She doesn't get, no matter how many times over it is demonstrated, that burning down people's houses and stealing their hard drives isn't enough. Sometimes you've got to man up and put a bullet in their heads. Cameron gets that because she's driven by her mission, Derek gets that because he's a solider first and foremost, and John gets that because it's his only chance for a future. But Sarah just doesn't and the writers won't do a thing about it. Part of the premise they are asking you to buy is Sarah as a total badass, and everything about her - her clothes, her hair cut, her walk, her dialogue - is meant to convey that fact. But how can you believe in someone as a badass when she can't kill someone even to protect her son?
That said, the show's not all bad. At worst, you get explosions and cool robot fights. At best, you get Cameron and Derek heavy episodes. I never thought I'd be saying this about anything involving the former David Silver, but there it is. He's grown up hot and surprisingly well acted. It's even worth putting up with Jesse (Stephanie Jacobsen, and, no offence to the actress, it's again the way she's written) just to check in with Derek. As for Glau as Cameron, she's the show's strongest element, and the best episodes are built around her ever evolving humanity. We're forced to put all of the show's philosophical and pseudo-religious underpinnings into question whenever we see her form a connection with the world around her, and it's smart of them to do so. It's just that sometimes it's too bad it's not Terminator: The Derek and Cameron Chronicles.
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